


Between Your Love and Mine

by Lirillith



Category: SK8 the Infinity (Anime)
Genre: Bickering, Episode Tag, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Missing Scene, One-Sided Sakurayashiki Kaoru | Cherry Blossom/Shindo Ainosuke | Adam, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-21 01:21:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30013944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lirillith/pseuds/Lirillith
Summary: Joe gets Cherry to the hospital, visits him as soon as he can, and that night, helps take care of him after he escapes to Joe's restaurant.  When you put it like that, it sounds like everything went smoothly.
Relationships: Nanjo Kojiro | Joe/Sakurayashiki Kaoru | Cherry Blossom
Comments: 7
Kudos: 104





	Between Your Love and Mine

Kojiro doesn't really know if he's needed, at first. But Adam says his piece about Langa - Kojiro can't help wondering what the kid makes of that, and hoping Reki's not around to hear - and then skates off, and the whole time Kaoru hasn't even budged. So Kojiro takes his board and rolls off to the head of the course, not racing but none too slow. Not slow enough that Miya ought to be passing him like a bat out of hell in the spectator area. 

"Whoa, hold up," he calls back, and Miya wheels on him, braking and flipping the board's end up into his hand all in one fluid motion, just so he can glare. Which is a nice front, but he looks like he's about to cry, and that's the part that really takes Joe aback.

"Cherry's not even _moving,_ " Miya retorts, voice wobbly and defiant. Kojiro is still a little baffled - he didn't think Miya was that attached to either of them - but he's just a kid, and he's probably shaken up. 

"It's not gonna help him for you to break your neck," Kojiro says, and of course that's the wording he had to choose. Now he wants to leave Miya in the dust. Make sure Kaoru can at least wiggle his toes. He puts his hands on his hips to keep them from shaking. "Come with me and don't be reckless."

"You need someone to go get a car?" That's Shadow. 

Joe runs his hand through his hair. Planning. Right. He can't just race off to Kaoru's side. They'd both ridden bikes to get here, and— "That's right. You drive here, don't you?"

"I don't think I can get the car all the way down the road, but I'll come down as far as I can if you can get him partway up."

"Thanks, Shadow," he says, and then he turns and books it.

By the time he gets there, Kaoru's sitting up, with his arm cradled against his chest. A bunch of the course-side spectators are gathered around him, some crouched, some standing, one of the Cherry's fans - the girl with the big round glasses - tenderly offering him Pocari Sweat. A couple of them stand to wave him over, as if he might need help finding them. 

"What do you think? Can you make it out on your own two feet?"

"No. You'll have to carry me in your arms like a princess," Kaoru says. 

"Welp," Kojiro replies, getting down on his knees at Kaoru's side. The girl looks like this is awakening something in her, eyes wide as saucers behind her thick glasses.

"I'm joking, you oaf. My leg is broken too."

"What part?"

He reaches down with the good arm to pull up his hakama. Joe's bracing himself again, but it's not as bad as he feared. The shin's kind of off, at an angle, and it's red and already starting to swell, but there's no blood, no visible bone, no broken skin or torn muscle. Some scrapes, but it'd be weirder if there weren't any. And it's not like it's a shattered femur, something he'd make worse by picking him up.

"Eh, it looks fine. Walk it off," he says, and then he puts his arm around Kaoru's shoulders - he's always surprised by how broad they really are, on a guy who seems so slender and ethereal - waits until Kaoru has his broken right arm situated comfortably between them, and then carefully works his arm under Kaoru's knees. He gathers him close for several long heartbeats, and then he stands, heart in his throat, waiting for a hiss, a shout, some kind of insult to let him know he's made the hurt worse. 

Instead there's just a long exhale through the shredded mask. "And I was sure you'd just make it worse," Kaoru says. "I guess those muscles of yours are good for something after all."

"Hey, somebody get his board," someone calls behind them, and Kojiro has to actually turn around so Kaoru can be sure no one's mistreating Carla before they can go anywhere. And then they finally get moving, and he begins to see all the downsides to his heroic rescue. He can look right down and see Kaoru, all banged-up and miserable, cuddled up against his chest, way closer to him than they normally are any time they're not insulting each other, right in kissing distance. Or he can look anywhere and everywhere else - at trees, and rocks, and the course guys muttering into walkie-talkies, and their little retinue trudging along with them, and the fans snapping photos - and try not to think about Kaoru's swollen leg and crooked arm, Kaoru motionless on the ground with Adam gloating over him, Kaoru no doubt hearing his words over and over right this minute.

Except that when he looks down, Kaoru's eyes are closed. "Hey," Kojiro says. "Don't go falling asleep on me!" 

"Shut up," Kaoru mutters.

"That's actually a myth," the girl with the glasses says. "It's okay for someone with a concussion to sleep as long as they're coherent. Look!" She holds up a tablet with some serious-looking health website, which Kojiro can't possibly read while they're all walking. 

"I'll take your word for it, then. Should have known an S fan would have pretty good first-aid skills," Kojiro says, winking at her.

"Don't flirt with my fans," Kaoru says, still without opening his eyes. "She's a woman of taste and refinement, if she supports me. She deserves better than a gorilla."

"You sure are _noisy_ for a princess with a head injury," Kojiro retorts, because the girl's gone tomato-red and the last thing she needs is for either of them to tease her any more. How could Kaoru even tell he was flirting? You can't hear a wink.

"How long are you going to carry me?"

"We've only been at this a couple of minutes, max! Shadow's meeting us with a car." 

"Then I _will_ take a nap," Kaoru says. Not that Kojiro can really see a difference - he needs to watch where he's going, and he definitely needs to not gaze dopily at Kaoru in front of the course cameras and this whole escort of fans. But after a while he realizes Kaoru's relaxed in his arms, that he's sagged into Kojiro's body, head lolling a little. Kojiro shifts his arm to support Kaoru's head better, cradling it against his chest, and he sighs, like a deep breath will help balance out the constriction he feels around his heart.

It's hard for him to know how long they walk before they see Shadow's headlights. He feels a twinge of dread - the car looks like he could lift it, so he's not sure how he's going to fit Kaoru's long and injured legs in there painlessly. Maybe he should just keep on walking, all the way to a hospital. But Kaoru wakes up when Kojiro stops walking, and while he's snappish (big surprise) and a little dazed, he's able to work with them to get himself arranged in the backseat. Miya goes in the front. Kojiro's left to trudge the rest of the way on his own, his arms and chest still recalling Kaoru's weight in his arms, Kaoru's hair on his skin, until he reaches his bike and can head to the hospital himself. 

By the time he gets there, he has a dozen texts from Miya updating him on Kaoru's status. The head and neck injuries aren't serious, which Kojiro had kind of guessed what with Kaoru sitting up and snarking at him and everything, but the broken bones are. The doctors want to keep him for a few days for observation, just in case. He and Shadow got kicked out of the room, but they know the room number. Miya also says that Carla didn't blow up, which is oddly specific, but he'll get the whole story someday.

In the waiting room - "this is the emergency room waiting room, I guess," Shadow explains - Miya's asleep, curled up across two chairs, with Carla leaned up against one of them, and Shadow's makeup is mostly gone, though Kojiro's not sure if he wiped it off himself or if he had to carry Kaoru in without any help. "How the hell did the kid get my number?" Kojiro asks.

"Cherry gave it to him," Shadow says. 

"Huh." He's weirdly touched. Kaoru can be thoughtless about things like that, and "broke half his limbs and possibly also his head" is the kind of thing that gets you a pass for not thinking about who needs updates on your health. "It's, what, 3 a.m.? Are they letting anyone in at all? Even family?"

"You'd have to sneak in," Shadow says.

"I'll just wait. You take the kid home." 

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I work for myself, I can start my day whenever."

When they're gone, it's just him and Kaoru's board, which mercifully doesn't talk to anybody except Kaoru. A couple of times nurses drop by to see if he needs anything, and he explains he's just waiting, and tries flirting half-heartedly. He keeps dozing off. There are other people coming and going, actual patients and their families, but for some reason they give the shirtless, tattooed stranger a wide berth. Suits him just fine. 

Finally, when the light outside is starting to show the gray of early, early morning, one of the nurses he'd attempted to charm taps him on the shoulder and whispers that he can probably go see whoever he's visiting even if it's not really official visiting hours. He jerks awake like he's been bitten, beams at her - must have been pretty dazzling, she looks stunned - grabs Carla, and takes off. It takes him a while to find the right room, but when he finally pokes his head in a door and sees Kaoru, bandaged up and hooked up to several monitors and an IV, glowering back at him, it's like the world is finally in focus and fully colorized.

"Took you long enough," Kaoru snaps. 

Even for Kaoru that's a bit much. No thank you or anything? Kojiro holds up Carla. "Oh? What's that? You want me to go up to the roof and toss this thing off?"

"Give her here right now!"

"Her? That's never going to stop being creepy." He brings the board over to Kaoru, though, who clearly really wants to jerk it out of his hands but ends up taking it gingerly, one-handed, and resting it across his legs. 

"Take it up with Siri and Alexa," Kaoru says, tapping the board to bring up the battery display. Twenty percent. "I suppose I should thank you for bringing her. Sorry. I'm exhausted."

"I guess that explains you falling asleep on me."

"I did? I don't remember. I haven't been able to sleep here. No white noise, no music..." He hits a button, and Carla starts making ocean noises. "Have you slept?"

"As much as I ever do on S nights," Kojiro replies, fighting the immediate urge to yawn. "Why? Need me to go get you a charger?" 

"If you go near my place I'll kill you. Now that I have Carla I can call an employee to bring anything I need from the office."

"Well, I guess I'll leave you two lovebirds alone, then. Carla can cut you bunny-shaped apple slices and feed them to you by hand."

"I hope that doesn't mean you intended to do that."

"Nah. I'd just cram the whole apple in your mouth like a roast pig."

"Finish laughing at me and go home to get some rest, Kojiro."

 _If you lose, I'll laugh at you, you four-eyed weakling._ It had just been their usual bit, so obvious even Adam called it that. Why the hell is Kaoru bringing it up like either of them ever _means_ any of that? He puts one hand on the hospital bed's rail, bending over close enough that he can see every burst capillary in Kaoru's eyes, every thread of the gauze wrapped around his head. Kaoru's eyes lock on his. He can barely breathe, but he still manages to say, "Does it look like I'm laughing?"

They're so close. Kaoru's eyes are still on his, and then they flick down to his mouth, which is all the hint Kojiro needs after all these years. He reaches up to cup Kaoru's face, strokes his thumb over a narrow stripe of skin with no scrapes or bruising. But then Kaoru averts his eyes, turns his face down toward Carla. "Go home, Kojiro," he repeats, softly.

For a heartbeat or two he's frozen. "Kaoru," he almost whispers, tucking the hair behind Kaoru's ear.

"I think you have me confused with one of your groupies, Kojiro." Kaoru sounds more like himself now. More sure of himself. Colder. 

"Kaoru," he repeats, voice still soft, like he can bring the moment back. "I know exactly what I'm doing." 

Kaoru looks up, even as close as it puts their faces. His expression is perfectly composed, but there's almost a lost look in his eyes. "Good for you," he says. "Now go home."

Kojiro sighs so heavily it ruffles Kaoru's hair. He half expects a scolding for that, too. "Yeah," he says, straightening up as slowly as an old man with a bad back, and then moving toward the door. "Have fun recuperating," he says, barely even looking at Kaoru. "See you around." 

Kaoru lifts his good hand in a little wave, not his usual style at all, and Kojiro steps out into the hallway, out of sight of Kaoru's door, to lean against the wall and run his hands over his face and through his hair. Another big sigh. Then he pulls himself together, straightens his shoulders, and heads back out the way he came. 

There's only one place to go when he feels like this, and that's the gym. He can turn his brain off, use those muscles Kaoru's always so snide about, and burn off some helpless fury. The glow he has after a good workout may not get rid of his problems, but it always helps him be a bit more hopeful about them. And after giving his brain a rest, sometimes it manages to come up with something new when he's in the shower afterwards, like _The way Kaoru feels about Adam now is the way I felt back when we took that kid to the hospital after Adam led him off a cliff. Except worse, because Kaoru was in love with him._ Kaoru had never given up hope, all these years, that somehow he could bring Adam back to himself by beating him at his own game, like life was a shounen manga and Adam just needed to be redeemed. Kaoru had never let go of his feelings for Adam, never stopped believing they were still special to him in some way. That _he_ was special. 

And Adam had just broken all those hopes and then done one of his little dances on the shards. 

So not the most productive trip to the gym ever, since now he's back to helplessness and anger, but he's worn himself out enough to grab a couple of hours of sleep in his apartment above Sia la Luce before opening the restaurant for lunch.

The nap leaves him groggy rather than rested, but once he's in the kitchen he starts to feel more alive. One thing he's always loved about cooking is the way it, like skating, keeps both his body and his mind occupied. There's a path to follow, an order of things, but with room to improvise, places where it can go wrong and ways to course-correct when things go off-kilter, and with plenty of room, in both, for self-expression, for your own style to shine through. It's not like lifting weights; it's body and mind working together, whether it's his hands chopping vegetables while he watches the clock thinking of when the pasta will be ready, or his whole body adjusting his speed and balance because he knows he's coming up on a turn. 

There's always a little room for thought as he's cooking, now and then; lulls in business, idle times, his mind wandering as he stirs or simmers. He can apologize to Kaoru, if he has to. But Kaoru's a smart guy. Ridiculously, terrifyingly smart, even if he has his blind spots. Surely he's had some idea how Kojiro's felt about him, all these years; surely he's not going to be surprised, or angry, just because Kojiro had a weak moment. They'll get past this. Kaoru needs time to heal, his bones and his heart both, but he'll be okay. They'll be okay. Eventually.

Kojiro's been thinking in terms of weeks. Days, at least. He's not expecting to hear the door open after Sia la Luce is closed that very evening, even if he put out a wine glass out of habit. But there's Kaoru, swathed in bandages, still wearing hospital pajamas but now with his glasses on, in some high-tech bespoke wheelchair that looks like it might actually be a transformed version of Carla. 

"'Tis but a scratch," Kaoru says, though of course minutes later he's too injured to go buy a bottle of wine. They're sniping at each other like nothing's wrong or ever has been, even though it's all about Adam, who put Kaoru in the hospital he just sneaked out of. But Kojiro leaves the room for maybe fifteen seconds to get a bottle of wine, and when he comes back Kaoru, the guy who needed his skateboard to play him ocean sounds in a hospital room so he could sleep, the guy who tossed and turned through every school trip, has passed out on the counter of Kojiro's restaurant. He's snoring a little. Peaceful. 

Kaoru may keep making himself crazy for a while, trying to figure out what's going on with Adam. He didn't have any time for Kojiro's ideas about skating alone when he was conscious. But Kojiro knows. He and Kaoru have each other, one way or another, and Adam has no one at all. 

He doesn't sleep like somebody driving himself nuts over a lost love, or a lost friend either. He sleeps like a log, despite the uncomfortable position, even when Kojiro puts a plate of pasta down next to his head, and eats his own dinner, kind of noisily, just to see if Kaoru will pop out of a sound sleep to scold him for his disgusting manners. Nothing stirs him, until Kojiro shakes his shoulder. Kaoru starts awake, and reaches up uncertainly, pushing his glasses back into place. 

"I think you need sleep more than you need food right now," Kojiro says.

"Maybe you're right," Kaoru says. His left cheek has the prints of his own fingers embedded in it. He looks sleepy and young and confused, and Kojiro's heart doesn't fit in his own chest anymore. "I should go."

"No, stay. You can have my bed. I'll change the sheets and everything."

"I can't get up the stairs like this."

"Carrying you upstairs is nothing after I got you off the S course. Come on. I'll drive you home tomorrow morning." 

Kaoru takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes. "If you insist," he says. 

Kojiro hadn't expected it to be that easy. Maybe Kaoru hadn't minded being carried after all, or even liked it, which is both a hopeful possibility for Kojiro to cherish, and fertile ground for teasing. "Okay," he says. "This ought to be easier, what with the casts, and you not being on the ground."

Easier, but more awkward, since Kaoru is fully conscious this time, and Kojiro had tried to kiss him, and Kojiro hasn't had enough wine to forget about that. So he sticks to his policy of not looking at Kaoru, and not making any comments. They're halfway up the stairs, and Kojiro has been valiantly resisting making a crack the whole time, when Kaoru says, "I know you're wanting to make some joke about how I clearly wanted you to carry me again."

"Hey, I think I get some credit for _not_ saying it!" 

"Not really. Not when I can hear you resisting."

"You can't hear that!"

They're still bickering when he fumbles the door open and carries Kaoru over the threshold like the world's grouchiest, most battered bride. Kojiro sets him down on the bed and then stretches his back, and when he looks again, Kaoru's climbing under the covers already. "Hang on. I said—"

"I don't care about the sheets. Get in here with me."

"Wait, what?" 

Kaoru holds up his glasses, and Kojiro automatically sets them on the nightstand. 

"I'm cold. Get in the bed with me," Kaoru says. He's looking at his hands, not at Kojiro, in a way that would almost look like bashfulness in literally anyone else in the world.

"Look, I don't mind you coming onto me, but — and I can't believe I'm saying this — I'm not sure this is the time for that."

"The last thing I want is to have sexual contact with anyone when I'm feeling like this, ape or human," Kaoru says. Which is almost a relief because Kojiro was starting to wonder about the head injury. "I just want you to be in the bed with me."

Normally Kojiro would go take a shower after a day in the kitchen. Normally he'd have a retort ready for Kaoru's crack about apes, or some mockery about the need for company even as he climbed into the bed, or possibly a plan to change his mind about the sex thing. But tonight he just changes into pajamas and climbs into bed next to the demanding mummy he loves, and lays there patiently as Kaoru settles his head on his shoulder and makes himself comfortable. He curls one arm around Kaoru's shoulders, closes his eyes, and listens to Kaoru's breath slow down and even out into sleep. 

There's that faint snore again. He's going to get some mileage off that snore someday. But for now, sure that Kaoru's asleep, he presses a kiss to the top of his head, leans his own head against Kaoru's, and lets himself sink into sleep as well.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by _so much_ fanart of Joe carrying Cherry, and looking after him in the hospital. It's just that something kind of went off course on the way to bunny-shaped apple slices.


End file.
